One of the automotive industry’s most coveted innovation prizes – the 2025 Altair Enlighten Award – has been won by AkzoNobel’s Powder Coatings business and Chinese electric car-maker NIO, in recognition for co-developing a new product which will help NIO achieve its 15-year EV battery longevity ambition.
Designed to protect electric battery bottom plates, the specially formulated product within the Interpon A1000 range will triple the life of the battery shielding coatings compared with existing solutions, making AkzoNobel the first coatings company to win the honor in the Sustainable Product category.
Instead of traditional charging, NIO enables drivers to quickly exchange a depleted EV battery for a newly charged one at its automated Power Swap stations. However, repeated battery swaps may expose the bottom plate to abrasion, corrosion and mechanical wear.
Working together with NIO, AkzoNobel’s Interpon brand created a dedicated coating which was specially engineered for superior durability. As well as extending the service life of the underbody coating from five to 15 years, it also reduces coating thickness by 70% and cuts vehicle weight by 2.2 kg.
“The innovative coating we’ve jointly developed with AkzoNobel has greatly enhanced the reliability and service life of our battery systems,” says Shizhe Tzeng, NIO’s Vice-President Battery System. “It supports NIO’s 15-year battery longevity strategy and marks a critical breakthrough in EV material innovation.”
Adds Jeff Jirak, Managing Director of AkzoNobel’s Powder Coatings business. “We’re extremely proud to win this prestigious award together with NIO. It’s recognition for our joint commitment to groundbreaking innovation, while also highlighting our leadership in EV coating technology and our continued focus on promoting the sustainable development of the industry.”
Beyond its superior protective properties, the new coating also enhances production efficiency. Line tests show the lightweight innovation increases spraying efficiency by 50%, saves more than 2,000 tons of material and reduces production line electricity consumption by more than 2 GWh annually, compared with the PVC material it’s replacing. With zero VOC emissions and a 95% powder recycling rate, the technology forms a sustainable closed-loop system covering the entire product lifecycle.
The new product demonstrates how powder coatings are increasingly playing an important functional role in automotive applications, while reinforcing AkzoNobel’s position in the EV mobility space. Through its Resicoat powder brand, the company already offers a dedicated range of solutions specifically designed to provide electrical insulation for EV components such as battery systems and electric motors.
In mass production since November 2024, the patented Interpon A1000 technology has already been used on around 80,000 NIO EVs, across multiple models. It was developed at AkzoNobel’s Shanghai Technology Center and is manufactured at the company’s Changzhou plant.
Since partnering in 2020, the cooperation between AkzoNobel and NIO has expanded into core components such as wheels, chassis, calipers and battery packs, encompassing the entire NIO vehicle line-up.
The Altair Enlighten Awards are the only global automotive industry honors to focus on vehicle lightweighting and sustainable development. The Sustainable Product category aims to recognize projects that have made breakthrough progress in reducing emissions, lightweighting, material recycling and enhancing safety.
